Troubleshooting controlled access data on Terra

Overview

Datasets featured on Terra (app.terra.bio) come from a variety of consortia and publishers. Access to controlled datasets is managed by these external data partners, not by Terra itself. If you're having trouble accessing controlled data, work through the steps below to rule out common environment and credential issues before contacting a data owner.

If the issue turns out to be with the data itself (access approval, data quality, or documentation), contact the data owner directly and confirm first that you have active access and are using the correct credentials.

Step 1: Confirm your browser

Terra is optimized for Google Chrome. If you're using a different browser, switch to Chrome and retry.

Step 2: Confirm your email address

Use your institutional email address in Terra when working with NIH controlled-access data, not a personal Gmail account. NIH data access requires that you use your institutional email.

If you previously used Gmail for access:

• Register your institutional email with a Terra account. This may require setting up a Google account with this email. 
• Using your original Gmail account, grant your institutional email Owner permissions on any resources owned by this account: 1) Terra Billing Projects, 2) Workspaces, 3) Google cloud resources.
• Link your external identity in your app.terra.bio/#profile

Step 3: Clear browser state

Stale cookies or sessions can cause authentication failures that look like access issues.

• Delete your browser cookies.
• Log out of Terra.
• Log back in and retry.
• Try using incognito mode in Google Chrome.

Step 4: Check your linked external identity

Controlled-access datasets require your Terra account to be linked to an external identity provider (for example, eRA Commons or NIH). This link can expire.

1. Go to your Terra profile page.
2. Unlink and relink your external identity.
3. See the linking instructions for step-by-step guidance.

Step 5: Confirm your Data Access Request (DAR) is active

Even with a correctly linked identity, you need an active, valid Data Access Request for the specific dataset.

• Confirm with your principal investigator (PI) that your DAR is current and that you are a named data downloader on the request.
• Check your request status in dbGaP (or the relevant access system for the dataset).

Data consortia reference

If the steps above don't resolve the issue, consult the data consortium's own access documentation or contact the data owner directly.